INNOCEAN India is part of the global Innocean network, which operates across 21 countries through 24 offices worldwide. Founded in 2005 with innovation at its core, the agency focuses on building brands through meaningful consumer insights. In a fast-changing communication landscape, INNOCEAN India offers integrated brand solutions by uncovering relevant insights, driving engagement, and encouraging co-creation, all aimed at creating strong brand value rooted in human experiences that truly connect with consumers.
Medianews4u.com caught up with Jaeho Yoo, MD & CEO, INNOCEAN India
1. Many agencies talk about integration. What does it actually look like at Innocean India?
Many agencies talk about integration, but in reality, most execute campaigns within similar frameworks, changing only the creative assets while repeating the same patterns. IIN’s approach to integrated marketing is fundamentally different. We operate as a Unified Marketing OS that leverages decades of accumulated customer data along with real-world experience from campaigns we have actually executed and optimized. This allows us to design solutions tailored precisely to each client’s business objective. Innocean India has strong capabilities across the entire marketing spectrum including CX, space, and hyperlocal marketing, backed by experience that few competitors can match. Managing two major mobility brands has also given us deep Martech expertise, which enables us to deliver customized solutions across FMCG, finance, construction, energy, beauty, electronics, and startups alike.
2. As AI becomes a baseline capability, what will the next phase of advertising demand?
Great advertising has always started with understanding and analysing consumers and it will continue to be so. We will need to maximise technology while never losing sight of human emotion and truth. While the landscape has evolved, the core principle remains unchanged. As AI becomes a baseline capability, it will enable deeper consumer understanding, sharper segmentation, and more precise strategies to reach specific needs. Even within the same audience group, consumer motivations vary widely. We are entering an era where brands can connect the right product to the right consumer at the right moment or even guide consumers who are unsure what to choose. At Innocean, we see AI as an amplifier of human insight, not a replacement. While tools evolve rapidly, the foundation of consumer understanding does not.
3. How can agencies train teams to develop better judgment rather than just better tools?
At Innocean, we encourage teams to deeply understand client businesses, sit closer to decision-making and engage with customers beyond briefs and decks. When clients with deep product and business insight collaborate with agency partners who understand industry trends and bring experience across tools and campaigns, the result is stronger decision-making and meaningful innovation. Tools can guide choices, but judgment comes from experience, exposure and accountability, supported by a system that encourages thinking before execution.
4. What shifts are needed to prioritise quality of ideas over quantity of assets?
AI’s growing relevance is not because it creates ideas on its own, but because it replaces repetitive human tasks at scale. This, in turn, allows marketers to focus on more original and personalized ideas. Creativity will always be driven by humans. We at INNOCEAN have consciously moved towards sharper problem definition, focusing on stronger ideas and technology that removes friction rather than creates noise. When teams know that thoughtful work is valued over volume, they focus on ideas that create real customer value.
5. How can brands use cultural signals without appearing opportunistic or inauthentic?
Authentic branding requires continuous, two-way dialogue with consumers. While competitors often focus on what brands want to say, Innocean focuses on listening: through AI tools, data analytics, research, and diverse consumer interactions. True authenticity begins with genuine understanding and insight. Brands must ask whether a cultural moment aligns with their values and role in people’s lives. The world has become too complex and fragmented to rely solely on client briefs. IIN continues to build capabilities to understand consumers through multiple touchpoints and interpret real behaviour.
6. How has Innocean India evolved beyond being perceived as auto-centric?
At INNOCEAN, we know that Mobility marketing requires understanding vehicles not just as products, but as part of consumers’ lifestyles. This demands insight into daily behaviors, patterns, and broader societal connections. understanding of customer journeys, decision-making and technology-led ecosystems. We extended that thinking across categories. Today our work spans FMCG, FMCD, energy, healthcare, BFSI, education, digital native, BPC and more. We work with very different customer groups and business challenges. What has evolved is how we apply our strengths. This has led to a multi-fold growth in our client portfolio and is shaping our plans to expand across other geographies of the country. As a Unified Marketing OS, we design solutions that are category-agnostic but insight-led, whether it is building scale, driving consideration or creating new experiences across diverse markets.
7. What challenges come with managing two large automotive brands?
We operate with completely dedicated teams for each brand, with strict separation to protect confidentiality. No other agency in the market master-handles two major mobility brands while also delivering end-to-end capabilities: from hyperlocal execution to space marketing, all under one roof. While teams remain fully independent, our leadership-level category understanding allows us to apply broader learnings without sharing information. The depth of marketing and consumer insight generated through this model is unparalleled, allowing IIN to build a differentiated and defensible leadership position.
8. Auto brands demand consistency, but audiences crave freshness. How do you manage this tension?
Consumer behaviour offers a useful analogy. Individuals act consistently based on their values, yet they continuously evolve and seek novelty. Brands are no different. While maintaining core values, they must adapt to changing consumers and technologies—sometimes following shifts, sometimes leading them. For agencies, navigating this balance between consistency and evolution is complex, but it is also where the true excitement of marketing lies. We work with our clients to define strong brand fundamentals and then actively enable them to ride cultural and platform trends through execution.
9. In an AI-accelerated ecosystem, how important are clarity and consistency?
Just as AI generates outputs based on prompts and direction, effective marketing requires clarity of direction and consistency of messaging. From product planning and production to distribution and marketing, alignment across the entire journey is critical. In my view, the brands that win will be those that use AI to reinforce meaning, not constantly reinvent it. IIN is equipped with end-to-end capabilities to understand, analyse, and translate this complexity into clear insights and actionable solutions.
10. What skills or mindsets will define successful advertising leaders over the next decade?
The marketing agency landscape will transform significantly over the next decade. How we interpret the future, hire talent, and train teams will define success. IIN aims to develop professionals who deepen their individual specialties while thinking through a unified lens and producing differentiated creative solutions. The ability to simplify complexity, make clear calls and build teams that learn continuously will matter more than mastering any single tool. Leadership ultimately means building leaders. Our ambition is to grow as an agency where each individual’s expertise contributes to delivering distinctive, compelling, and fully unified marketing solutions.
